Chicago recently announced their firearm-related crime figures for 2012 – more than 2500 shootings and at least 513 homicides (we say “at least” because some of the victims haven’t died yet). Remember that this is in a city with among the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. In fact, Chicago has so many shootings that the Chicago Tribune devotes a special section to them: chicagotribune/topic/crime-law-justice/crimes/shootings/020010001165.topic The situation in Chicago is best illustrated by this single headline from last August: 13 people shot and wounded in 30 minutes of Chicago violence, including 8 on a single street startribune/nation/167314005.html?refer=y Note that Illinois is the only state left in the nation where citizens have no ability to legally carry a gun for self-defense. In order to buy a gun, or even ammunition, an Illinois resident must produce a current FOID (Firearm Owners Identification) card. Chicago residents have yet more bureaucratic hoops to jump through, making it almost impossible to legally own a handgun, even after the city’s outrageously restrictive gun laws were rebuffed by the Supreme Court in the 2010 McDonald decision: washingtonpost/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062802134.html And if anyone expected things in Chicago to change after Mayor Richard M. Daley retired and Rahm Emanuel took over, they were sadly mistaken. In spite of a rash of shootings over the Summer, the new mayor’s approach is little more than a rehash of Daley’s “blame the guns” stand. But what is really astonishing about most of Chicago political and civic leaders is their steadfast refusal to confront reality. No matter how obvious the failure of their anti-gun programs, no matter how many gang shootings shatter the night, their response is always the same – “we need more gun laws.” It’s as if they live in some alternate universe – apparently, none of the city’s politicians have ever watched the History Channel’s illuminating series, “Gangland,” which makes it abundantly clear that inner city gangs are as heavily armed as ever. These brazen street thugs (including Chicago’s) merely laugh at gun laws, even boldly showing their guns to the interviewer, right on camera! In stark contrast to Illinois and Chicago is the remarkable success of so-called “concealed carry laws” that are now the rule in 49 states. Most states have now implemented “shall-issue” laws that allow residents to carry handguns for self-defense. And contrary to the dire predictions of the anti-gun hysterics, the experience of these states has been uniformly, and overwhelmingly, positive – permit holders turn out to be MORE law-abiding than the average citizen, not less. It is a testament to their effectiveness that not a single state has ever repealed its carry law. Yet time and again, whenever the citizens of Illinois, especially those in Chicago, even attempt to make it easier for the innocent residents to be able to defend themselves, the knee-jerk reaction from the political class is the same. They hysterically proclaim that letting the “good guys” carry guns will only result in “more blood in the streets” or similar irrational nonsense – seemingly ignoring the almost daily carnage that is the result of gangs who have absolutely no respect for any laws. When I left Illinois in 1995 to move to Minnesota (where I now carry a gun daily), I accurately predicted that Illinois would be the very last state to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to enact a handgun carry permit law. The reason is simple – Illinois is not run by the people of Illinois, it is run by the city of Chicago. Why do you think Rahm Emanuel decided to run for mayor of Chicago instead of governor? Because Emanuel knew quite well that the most powerful person in Illinois is not the governor – it is the mayor of the city of Chicago. Because by controlling the massive bloc of Democrat voters (alive and dead) that Chicago represents, the city dominates the state. And since the 1950′s Chicago has been run, and ruined, by Democrats. And now, with the uproar over the Connecticut school shooting, no one should be surprised that another veteran of the virulently anti-gun Chicago Democrat machine, President Obama, is contemplating bringing Chicago-style gun control to the rest of the nation.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:12:40 +0000
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